6.2.3: Vehicular Systems and Equipment
A vehicle’s systems are what separates it from other vehicles, even those that have same chassis, weight class and user type. Vehicles in WCRPG are designed to be relatively easy to build and customize; there are only a few basic systems that need to be installed in order for them to function. A vehicle’s equipment affects it in many of the same ways that equipment affects a character, defining how hard it is to damage it and what abilities it has. Vehicles have several basic systems, including the following: *'Armor': Some vehicles have Armor plates attached to their frame. Armor is designed for several functions, including passenger safety and the mitigation of damage to the chassis in the event of a collision. Armor is also effective at reducing the amount of permanent damage a vehicle receives due to incoming weapons fire. *'Engines': Vehicles derive power via some form of main reactor, which channels the energy it produces is channeled into whatever propulsive system the vehicle uses. Regardless of its type, a vehicle's Engine will determine how fast it can move and how fuel efficient it is. *'Shields': Shields perform many of the same jobs as armor. They have two key advantages over Armor: they can be added acquiring an HD penalty and they regenerate over time. Their main disadvantage is a substantial increase in their cost for an equivalent level of protection. They also count against the vehicle's total number of accessories in most cases and they are only available to Starfaring Age craft. Shields aboard vehicles are typically small, one piece combination emitter/charger arrays; the ambient strength of a vehicle's Shields is based solely on the amount of power the emitters receive. *'Weapons': Commercial, Industrial, and (of course) Military Vehicles may incorporate one or more weapons systems aboard. These weapons are included when a vehicle needs an offensive arm for one reason or another, be it to fend off pirates, to provide extra cutting power or to just kick butt. Vehicle weapons come in two varieties: Guns and Ordnance. *'Accessories': Accessories are additional systems designed to help a vehicle perform specific tasks such as terraforming, cargo hauling, passenger ferrying and weapons deliver. Most vehicles can hold only one or two accessory systems, though some can hold many, many more. In addition to these main systems and depending on its chassis, a vehicle may have one or more internal systems such as sensors, communications arrays and speed governors. These systems tend to be hardwired into the vehicle's chassis and are included in its cost; they can't be removed or modified directly though the function of some of them can be augmented through the addition of accessories. The following Chapter is an overview of the pieces of basic equipment, what they can do and how much they cost. GMs who are interested in creating their own equipment for vehicles are more than welcome to do so (for instructions on how to create such equipment, see Chapter 10.2.6.) Armor A vehicle’s Armor consists of metal plates attached to its outer hull designed to give it extra protection. It is not a required system but many users are still glad to have it despite the additional cost and performance degradation. Vehicles are limited in the amount of Armor they can utilize without having the Reinforced Chassis accessory installed based on their chassis type. Armor falls under the category of Defenses and can be repaired or replaced while the vehicle is not in use. *Type: Defenses/Armor *Gun/Missile Damage Reduction: None *Effects: +1 HD/BHD/FHD per centimeter above chassis default; -1 HD/BHD/FHD per centimeter below. Engines Engines provide electrical and propulsive power; they directly determine how fast a vehicle may travel and the number of range increments per round it may move during combat. In addition to being capable of propelling a vehicle faster, higher Classes of Engine are also more fuel efficient than lower ones (see Chapter 8.1). If any character-scale equipment is installed on a vehicle, its Engine provides a constant power source for that equipment, negating the need for any Batteries. Engines come in too many different shapes, sizes and forms to provide a comprehensive list of them for all technological levels and vehicle types. The following is a generic Engine listing; it can be adapted for more specific environments by adjusting some of the indicated statistics. *Availability: Variable (First Class only, Metal Age. Fifth Class maximum, Industrial Age). *HD Effect: -2 HD/BHD per Class level above the chassis default; +2HD/BHD per level below. *Speed Effect: Doubles base chassis speed per Class increase above the chassis default and halves base speed per Class decrease. Accessories Accessories are items that can be installed on a vehicle in order to augment its abilities. There is no limit to the types of modules that can be added to a vehicle (and is perfectly allowable to put the same accessory on a vehicle more than once), though the number of additional systems is limited by its chassis, weight class and user. Each accessory has the following set of statistics: *Name: This is what the accessory is called. *Availability: This lists at what level of technological development a species must attain in order to be able to use the accessory on their craft. *Restriction: This lists any restrictions on the types of vehicles that can use the accessory. *Cost: This lists the cost of the accessory in Cost Points. *Effect: This indicates what the equipment does; any additional notes on it are included here. Shields Shield emitters are small external arrays that generate protective barriers around the outer hull of a vehicle, in essence adding an extra layer of Armor to its hull. Vehicle-scale shield emitters are small enough to include all the equipment they’ll need in one tiny package, which reduces their cost but also limits their effectiveness; they usually provide enough power to protect the vehicle and its occupants from multiple hits by similarly-scaled weaponry. A vehicle may only have one Shield system installed unless a Backup Shield Generator accessory is also installed on the vehicle (both the Generator and the extra Shield are counted as added accessories). Shields fall under the general category of Defenses. *Type: Defenses/Shield *Availability: Starfaring Age *Regeneration: 10% total SHP plus the mechanical specialist's Defenses Skill score every ten rounds. *Nebula Hit Point Reduction: Non-functional below Class Six. Minus five Classes effectiveness at Class Six or higher. *Gun/Missile Damage Reduction: None *Effects: None Weapons Vehicles can carry and utilize various forms of weapons systems; the use of weapons on vehicles is covered more in depth in Chapter 9.3. Weapons do not count as accessories in and of themselves. However, in order to be placed on a vehicle, a Weapons Station accessory is required. Weapons Stations in general determine the number of weapons a vehicle carries and defines the combat arcs into which a weapon may be fired (for details, see Chapter 9.3). Weapons Stations are counted as accessories. Weapons Stations are described as a phrase of categorical descriptions with the following form: , The specific descriptors along with their effects are listed in the table below. Vehicles in WCRPG use a system of relative bearings to determine if a target is within a particular weapon's firing arc (i.e. to establish whether or not the weapon has "line of sight" on the vehicle's target). A relative bearing is a bearing in which the reference direction (0°) is straight ahead and where the bearing is measured relative to the front of the vehicle. Particular sets of bearings into which a weapon may be fired are further designated as firing arcs. A weapon's default bearing (i.e. the direction in which it is normally aimed) should be included along with the total number of degrees of its firing arc; the indicated bearing will be assumed to be the center-point of its firing arc. For example, a weapon that has a center-point of zero degrees and ten degrees of arc may fire along any bearing from 355° to 5°. Bearing information is necessary due to the various grids that may be utilized via the game's flexible combat engine (for more information, see Chapter 9.1). Instead of including specific center-point and arc data, a Weapons Station may employ a pre-designated firing arc. The following table outlines the data for the pre-designated firing arcs that will be used throughout WCRPG as a shorthand notation. The data includes the name of a specific arc designation, the specific range of bearings for which it applies and images demonstrating the specific arcs; each wedge on these images indicates an approximate 22.5° of arc. The center-point of each arc is intended to serve as a weapon's default bearing in all cases. Where the game refers to "major combat arcs", the four italicized arcs (forward, portside, aft and starboard) are meant. For example, a Weapons Station with a descriptor of "Gun Hard-Point (0°, no arc)" indicates a non-armored, single weapon platform capable of holding one gun and firing that weapon along a straight line ahead of the vehicle. A more complex example is an "Armored Gatling Nonuple Heavy Ordnance Turret (Forward Over-the-Shoulder), Double Bank, 50 cm". This indicates a weapons station that has 50 centimeters of armor, has an increased firing rate, has nine heavy ordnance launchers, can fire on bearings between 210°-150°, and has a magazine capable of holding up to 50 weapons at the same time. Weapons Stations may be explicitly targeted via Targeting actions. A Weapons Station can sustain 100 points of damage before being destroyed, unless it has have been given armored plating; an armored station can sustain 100 points plus the amount of AHP it has been given. When a Weapon Station is Targeted, Core Damage will not occur unless the Station is destroyed in the attack; 1% Core Damage occurs when a Weapons Station is destroyed. Weapons come in three main varieties: guns (multi-use projectile weapons utilizing one of several different methods of causing mechanical damage), ordnance (single-use high explosive projectile weapon capable of causing a single burst of massive damage; this is further divided into light and heavy sub-varieties based on the weapon's damage potential) and special weaponry (non-projectile weapons of any nature, such as beam weaponry). The following weapons are available for use on vehicles. Each has the following statistics: *Type: The general kind of weapon being described. *Name: What the weapon is called. *Service Date: The Earth-equivalent year at which the weapon will become available for use. *Cost: This is the amount the weapon adds to the vehicle's overall cost. *Refire: The number of times the weapon may apply damage during the course of a standard round provided it is charged (for details, see Chapter 9.3). *Range: The maximum distance in range increments a target may be from the firing vehicle in order to use the weapon effectively. *Damage: This lists the amount of damage the weapon applies to a target on an indicated hit. *Effects: Various sundry effects the weapon may have/cause. For a list of general examples of weapons effects, see Chapter 10.2.6. Note that the statistics for weapons outlined herein are for standard weapons; Military craft may adjust the damage, re-fire rate and range of weapons as needed to suit their specific needs. Doing so adjusts the cost of the weapon using the formula below, with each multiplier expressed as a ratio of the new statistic to the old statistic rounded to the nearest hundredth: final cost = base cost * damage multiplier * range multiplier * refire multiplier For example, the base statistics for a civilian-grade Laser Cannon are a cost of ¤1,000, 18 points of damage, range of 5 and a refire rate of 5. If we wanted to adjust the damage to 30 points and change the refire to ten, we'd have to adjust the price to ¤3,340 (¤1,000 * (30/18) * (5/5) * (10/5) = ¤1,000 * 1.67 * 1 * 2 = ¤3,340). Guns, Starfaring Light Ordnance Heavy Ordnance Weapons, Non-Starfaring and Special Equipment ---- NEXT: 6.3 Vehicle Catalog PREVIOUS: 6.2.2 Vehicle Users TOP ---- Category:WCRPG